Chapter 99: The Veiled Goddess and the Bitter Shali

Perched atop a towering mountain that overlooked the battlefield, two young women, standing side-by-side, finally ceased their vigil. The smoke of the recent conflict still clung to the air, and the echoes of falling swords had long since faded into oblivion.

This moment occurred seven centuries ago, to be precise, at the very time Cai was consumed by heart-wrenching grief, weeping uncontrollably.

A barefoot girl clad in white, and a suspicious figure whose face was obscured by a black veil—each had something to say to the other.

Their relationship was far from cordial, leaving no room for polite deference between them.

Neither was willing to yield, and in the very next instant, with perfectly synchronized timing, both spoke at once:

“Didn’t you always call her ‘Senior’? Why didn’t you help her?”

“Didn’t you have an obsession with Senior? Why did you choose to stand by and do nothing this time?”

Both felt a sense of guilt regarding the other, which stripped their accusations of any true confidence.

Nevertheless, the woman cloaked in black felt a far deeper disquiet than the detestable figure beside her, who was dressed in white.

The veiled woman was none other than the ‘suspicious woman’ who, months prior, had gifted the Iris pendant to Wang.

She was also the first owner of the greatsword that would later become Cai’s primary weapon.

As deities were forbidden from directly interfering in the mortal realm, the Goddess had no other recourse but to offer an indirect safeguard for Wang’s personal safety.

Yet, she had not foreseen the outcome.

The sword ultimately found its way into the hands of a stranger, a young girl whose life it successfully preserved instead.

‘Does this mean my act of sending the greatsword was utterly meaningless? Why is Senior still so foolish?’

The ‘Senior’ the veiled woman spoke of was Wang, now peacefully asleep.

Rather than suggesting the veiled woman was defending an acquaintance she had only met once, it was more accurate to say she wished to aid Senior’s reincarnation.

However, to this point, her motives were irrelevant; her carefully laid plan had largely failed to make an impact.

As she clutched her head in self-reproach, the girl in white, unaffiliated with the Church, pressed her hands together clumsily, mourning Wang, who lay on the distant battlefield.

“Regret is useless now; the departed are gone. Instead of lamenting past failures, we should learn from this one and prepare for her next life!”

“You…”

Hearing these callous words, the veiled woman’s gaze turned sharp, her raised brow a stark symbol of her displeasure.

“I’ve always wanted to ask: Shali, are you still bitter about that past failure with Senior? Is that why you’re here, intending to take revenge on her reincarnation?”

“Oh, is that what you, a Goddess, think?”

The girl in white—Shali—paused, turning her head slightly without facing the veiled woman directly.

From within her parted red lips, her pearly white teeth gleamed with a chilling brilliance.

“Don’t misunderstand, I don’t hate her at all. In fact, I realized at some point that I had developed a profound longing!”

“What do you long for?”

“The answer is the ‘Senior’ you speak of. I want to possess her!”

“If it’s you, Shali, saying ‘possess,’ I can’t help but feel you mean ill.”

“Then assume my intentions are malicious.”

Something felt amiss. The veiled woman pondered, realizing a contradiction in Shali’s words.

“Shali says she wants to possess Senior, so why didn’t you intervene when she was fighting alone on the battlefield?”

The veiled woman was constrained by her divine status, but Shali was not; she could have easily gone to the battlefield to aid Wang.

Had Wang received even the slightest assistance then, she would never have paid the ultimate price with her life.

From this perspective, the veiled woman harbored a considerable amount of resentment toward Shali.

Hatred was etched across the veiled woman’s face; each piercing stare, each furrowed brow, caused the surrounding air to freeze with a coldness that was almost palpable.

Yet, Shali cared not who resented her.

With a casual flick of her fingers, Shali toyed with a strand of hair behind her ear, her answer, delivered with playful nonchalance, sounding almost like an immutable truth.

“I had originally planned to find a suitable moment to appear before her and make her fall madly in love with me…”

Here, a sigh was needed. Shali sincerely regretted her tardiness, murmuring with profound disappointment:

“Unfortunately, that Nun suddenly interfered and completely stole her heart, leaving me no opportunity to make my entrance.”

“How does that relate to your failure to help her?”

The veiled woman had only managed to listen this far by exercising extreme patience.

It would have been unrealistic to expect her not to interject at all.

“It’s highly relevant. You, a Goddess, consider this: would you go out of your way to do troublesome things for someone who doesn’t love you?”

“But Shali, don’t you long for Senior? Isn’t that reason alone enough for you to offer aid?”

“Oh, dear, dear.”

Shali wagged her index finger repeatedly, her leisurely demeanor as casual as if discussing everyday matters, like household chores.

“Though you are a Goddess, you understand nothing of the complexities of the human heart.”

The expression that then surfaced on Shali’s face, visible to the veiled woman, suddenly became as cold as iron—a look most favored by demons.

“Once a beautiful jewel acquires a flaw, it ceases to be worth acquiring. Similarly, if she fell in love with another girl, then she became tainted.”

If she was tainted, there was no need to cherish her!

According to Shali’s philosophy:

“To be centered on me, to dedicate everything to me! That is the ideal form of the one I desire.”

If the outcome proved less than ideal, then there was a simple solution. She would do nothing, patiently awaiting the next incarnation.

That would suffice!

“To abandon her to death merely because you were dissatisfied… I finally understand your true intentions.”

To watch her die simply because the object of her desire fell in love with someone else.

The veiled woman had already guessed Shali’s plan: after this, Shali would seek out Senior’s reincarnation, finding a way to make her fall in love with her in the next life.

This woman was truly terrifying!

The listener almost suspected Shali was a devil in human skin.

In the instant the veiled woman was stunned, Shali tossed her long hair back and walked away without a backward glance.

The casual conversation was over. Shali’s momentary patience, born of a whim, had completely vanished.

Now, the two women, their thoughts diverging, would each pursue their own paths.

The two young women, parting ways here, would continue: one to watch over, until the day she no longer wished to guard Senior.

The other would continue her search, striving in her own way, her ultimate goal naturally to obtain the person she desired.

Unnoticed by Cai, two distinct forms of persistence intersected, then quickly diverged into two paths that would not cross again.

As Shali walked alone, no one noticed the tears streaming down her face.

“How dare you make me cry, you truly are despicable…”

Naturally, no one could have heard these words spoken from her lips.

A tainted person was not worth acquiring…

But for some inexplicable reason, she still felt a profound ache in her heart for Wang.

With full awareness, Shali began to regret her previous actions.

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